By MICHAEL BASTASCH
Oklahoma Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine, the White House’s choice to head NASA, will bring Bill Nye “The Science Guy” to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address at the end of the month.
The choice raised some eyebrows, given Nye’s politics, but the former children’s TV host also heads the Planetary Society, which is the world’s largest space exploration advocacy group. The Planetary Society lobbies Congress to fund NASA space programs.
“It is an honor to have ‘The Science Guy’ as my guest at the State of the Union Address,” Bridenstine said in a statement released on Thursday.
In recent years, Nye has taken to attacking those he disagrees with on global warming science. Nye’s suggested global warming skeptics should be jailed and that those who question climate claims would die out because they tend to be older.
President Donald Trump tapped Bridenstine to head NASA. Bridenstine’s nomination was opposed by environmentalists and Democrats who didn’t like his position on man-made global warming. Opponents also pointed out that Bridenstine is not a scientist.
The Senate did not approve of Bridenstine’s nomination last year. Regardless, Nye said he hopes Trump will lay out an aggressive space exploration agenda in his speech.